How meditation may boost resilience
Come evening, neighbors might see Richard Giltner gracefully moving his arms in his Fort Worth front yard.
He’s practicing a form of meditation called qi gong (pronounced chee guhng) to help him relax. Giltner has been caring for his wife, Beverly Wood, 72, who has endometrial cancer.
“It sounds hocus-pocus,” Giltner, 72, says. “But if it was not for qi gong, I would have been a pile of stress with all that’s gone on in the last year.”
Caring for loved ones can be rewarding, but it also can take a toll on your physical and mental health. Mindfulness and meditation practices like qi gong can help caregivers avoid burnout and boost their resilience. Think of it as rebooting your brain.
“There’s a lot of anger, resentment, sadness and grief,” says Dallas mindfulness coach Farahana Kassam. “We tend to suppress what’s happening in our inner world. Mindfulness and meditation can create a safe space to get in touch with your emotions.”
Kassam helped care for her father-in-law until he died in 2015. “If I knew then what I know now about mindfulness, my experience would have been very different,” she says.
Mindfulness emerged from ancient spiritual practices as a way to observe the present through self-awareness. Meditation is a way to be mindful through inner reflection.
Studies show mindfulness and meditation can reduce stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia and blood pressure as well as enhance overall well-being.
The number of Americans who meditate more than tripled from 2012 to 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bea Brown of Dallas is the primary caregiver of her sister Beth, 53, who suffered a stroke in 2017. She does breathing exercises and stretches at home and at her full-time job.
“It taught me how to relieve stress,” says Brown, 58. “It’s so healthy for me and allows me to refresh, refocus and take care of other people better.”
She’s among the more than 43 million unpaid caregivers nationwide, including over 3.4 million people in Texas. The typical family caregiver is 52 and provides care an average of 24 hours a week. More than half also work full time, according to the AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.
Such schedules make family caregivers prone to “compassion fatigue,” the physical and emotional exhaustion that over time can increase their susceptibility to illness, such as high blood pressure, anxiety and depression, says Sharyn Fein, executive director of Dallas-based Educare Inc., which provides caregiver support and training.
“Caregivers often become so engrossed in their roles that they can’t see their own health declining,” she says. “To take care of others, we first need to take care of ourselves.”
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